Trailfinders |

We're the best and we need the best working for us.

Over the past 53 years we have built an industry leading reputation for helping our clients plan their dream trips and this is entirely down to the knowledge, enthusiasm and dedication of our people.

You would be working for a multi award winning company, repeatedly recognised by readers of The Guardian & Observer, WHICH?, The Times & The Sunday Times, The Telegraph and the Cruise industry and being continually rated as the best travel company by our clients and employees alike on Trustpilot and Glassdoor.

We have ambitious plans for the future and need well-travelled, confident individuals to help us continue to exceed our clients' expectations. If you are motivated to build a career in travel sales, committed to developing and maintaining exceptional client relationships while enjoying the best travel perks on offer then there's a place for you on our team.

Unlike many companies we do not require previous experience working in the travel industry as full training is provided. And in order to be here for our clients the team is fully office based, ready to respond immediately to our clients 7 days a week.

Application is online only via the online application form. Shortlisted candidates will be invited to do an online Mental Agility Test which can lead to a phone interview which can lead to a final formal interview at the local office.

1970 - Trailfinders was formed by Mike Gooley with a staff of 4 as an overland tour operator

1971 - first edition of the Trailfinder Magazine was published

1973 - became the first organisation to advertise discount air tickets in the national press and emerged as the field leader

1977 - recorded our first profit

1979 - became the first 'bucket shop' and the first travel organiser to be IATA licensed, the first to connect directly into the Airline Computer Reservation System and the first to be granted an ATOL licence by the CAA and admitted to ABTA shortly thereafter

1989 - Kensington flagship Travel Centre opens, a state of the art one stop travel shop and the largest retail travel outlet in the UK at 11,500 sq ft

1992 - book our 1 millionth client

1993 - set up the Clients' Trust account protecting all client's funds paid to us and remaining unique in our field

1995 - Mike Gooley sets up the TF Charity with a £1 million donation

1997 - purchase the Great Western Railway Athletic Club in Ealing and the TF Sports Club is born

1998 - the TF website goes live and we introduce an out of hours service providing 24/7/365 support to our clients

2002 - the Trailfinder Magazine surpasses one million print run and a mail out of over 550,000

2004 - the Trailfinders Charity passes £10 million in donations and The Sunday Times Rich List names Mike Gooley as the fourteenth most generous giver to charity

2006 - Mike Gooley is awarded a CBE for his services to the Travel Industry and to charity

2007 - book our 10 millionth client

2008 - our Vice Chairman, Tristan Gooley, successfully completes a solo Transatlantic sail from Lanzarote to St Lucia, making him the only living person to have both flown and sailed solo across the Atlantic

2019 - book our 16 millionth client and sponsor I'm a Celebrity on ITV

2020 - in response to Covid19 TF teams are quickly equipped to work from home, able to support our clients without delay. Over 100,00 TF clients are affected; we repatriate over 20,000 and process over £180 million in refunds to clients

2021 - 12 June Mike receives a knighthood in the 2021 Queen’s Birthday Honours List. The honour was made for services to business and charity.

2023 - for the tenth consecutive year, and since the inception of the awards, Trailfinders is voted Best Tour Operator by readers of The Time, The Sunday Times and The Sunday Times Travel Magazine.

Tomorrow ... our travel consultants, who combined have travelled to over 96% of the world's countries, will continue to take pride in their ability to exactly match the perfect travel products to each individual client's needs and exceed their expectations at every opportunity.

We offer a fantastic career for those who are passionate about travel.

Virtually every member of our head office team and senior staff started their career as a trainee Travel Consultant. We recruit almost exclusively from internal applicants when it comes to promotions and new positions.

We are also committed to ensuring our staff can continue to travel as much as possible and our inhouse Staff Travel Department get us some of the best travel deals in the industry.

You are passionate about all things travel and want to work for the market leader in tailormade travel.

If you are well travelled or have a passion for travel the role of Travel Consultant could be perfect for you. If you have a strong worldwide geographical knowledge and if you have spent time in places like Australia & New Zealand, America & Canada and Asia, you will want to share that knowledge and experience with others, helping them plan their perfect trip. You will love dealing with the public and be able to forge exceptional client relationships.

You will have successful experience of working in a target based sales role, otherwise the drive to succeed in an environment designed to reward excellence with proven persuasiveness and influencing skills and a results orientated nature.

You will probably be a graduate and will have the ability to multi task and quickly interpret large volumes of complex information at the same time as communicating effectively over the phone and face to face with your clients.

Having previously worked in a busy, pressurised office environment you will be confident in your PC and keyboard skills, ability to manage multiple software applications simultaneously with strong organisational and time management skills and a great eye for detail.

Or perhaps you prefer being behind the scenes in which case we occasionally have opportunities to join our teams in London, Dublin and Oxford in vital support roles. This could be anything from processing product bookings to keeping things moving in our National Post room or being the face of TF on front reception to an experienced Graphic Designer or IT specialist.

Whatever you are interested in you would be joining friendly, professional teams of likeminded people who love to travel.

Training & Development

Our people make us successful so we place a huge importance on training and development to help everyone be their best.

Newly recruited travel consultants undergo rigorous induction starting with 5 weeks intensive classroom based training at Head Office in London. A final assessment to demonstrate overall understanding must be successfully completed before then moving on to 5 weeks office based time in the local travel centre, being mentored by team leaders and managers. This is followed by an additional week of classroom based advanced training to consolidate the induction period. It is a demanding course and performance is continually assessed but as a result we are confident that it is the best training in the industry.

Ongoing in-house training and coaching is provided to support career development including a variety of tailored coaching programmes, workshops and training days. Suppliers are keen to keep consultants fully up to date with existing and new products and often visit or host events and nights out.

The best way to gain knowledge of a product or destination is of course to experience it yourself so going on regular and heavily discounted holidays booked through our dedicated Staff Travel team is very much part of the culture at TF.

For support roles in London, Dublin and Oxford we generally offer initial classroom based training to get a grounding in our systems, policies and procedures before on the job training is provided by supervisory staff. Often the best way to learn is to do! As appropriate further in-house or external courses are offered to develop individuals' skills.

Working Hours

Working hours vary but most of us are rostered to work 8 or 9 hour days, 5 days a week.

For the convenience of our clients we are open 7 days a week, from 8am to 8pm Monday to Friday, 9am to 6pm Saturdays and Bank Holidays and 10am to 6pm on Sundays so flexibility to work earlier or later shifts is expected.

Most teams work regular weekends and bank holidays with corresponding days off in lieu and all additional hours and days worked to be there for our clients are rewarded with overtime or bonus rates.

But we value our time off too; with up to 40 days paid annual leave it's important to keep a balance and rosters are typically published up to a year in advance so you can plan ahead ... not to mention get your own holidays booked!

We really do believe that it's our people who make us great.

We have high expectations but we also genuinely recognise and reward excellence.

In return for their hard work our Travel Consultants enjoy benefits such as...

• The more you put into your career the more you can expect to get back with the most competitive salary in the industry and an uncapped incentive scheme.
• We are confident that we offer the best induction training in the industry but it doesn't stop there; you will enjoy supportive and comprehensive ongoing coaching and development throughout your career.
• Ambitious? promotions in the early years are performance based giving you real influence on your progression as you work your way up to a senior consultant and along the way there can be additional opportunities to advance your career in specialist areas such as Premium Travel & Cruise, First & Business and Private Touring.
• We encourage personal development and only recruit from within for supervisory and management level positions in sales. Our team leaders, managers and directors lead from the front having typically begun their TF journey as trainee travel consultants.
• For successful consultants there may also be opportunities to support the brand in a head office capacity as we also recruit internally for a number of roles in London such as Product Development, Marketing, IT and Training & Development.
• Don't want to stop travelling while building a career? You don't have to at TF because above all we love travel and we need you to continue adding to your knowledge and experience; not just visiting destinations but trying out the products for yourself.

Our dedicated Staff Travel team ensure we have access to the best rates and discounts and with a generous leave allowance of up to 40 days per year for the sales teams making sure you continue with your travels is very much a priority for us.

For sales teams there is also the opportunity for a six week sabbatical after 3 years of service and every 3 years thereafter; a chance to do that really big trip you've had your heart set on.

Add to this the educational and familiarisation trips hosted by TF or our suppliers; each year approximately 50% of travel consultants take part in one of these.

Or maybe you fancy a week in Sri Lanka or South Africa studying about the local destination and accommodation and tours on offer? That's what you would do if you attend one of our training academies when we take a number of consultants to experience an area of the world, taking part in local activities and getting to know the local suppliers.

• Our top performers are taken on an annual, all expenses paid 5 star trip to a long-haul destination including a Gala Awards Dinner hosted by directors.
• We're a pretty friendly bunch and there are great socialising opportunities including supplier hosted functions, team nights out and subsidised Christmas and summer parties.
• The opportunity to get involved by working as a brand ambassador at events such as the Destinations shows in London and Manchester, the Dublin Holiday World Show and the RHS Chelsea Flower Show.

We really do believe that it's our people who make us great.

We have high expectations but we also genuinely recognise and reward hard work and excellence.

Everyone in the team can take advantage of benefits such as

• To spread the cost of commuting there is an interest free loan for public transport or if you prefer your commute al fresco we operate a cycle to work scheme, allowing for tax and national insurance savings of up to 42%. Or perhaps you have your eye on an electric car in which case we have a programme in place so you can get yourself a new car at a bargain price and help save the planet too.
• Our first port of call for new positions is our current team; from new roles to managements positions opportunities are generally advertised on our intranet.
• At TF we love travel and our dedicated staff travel team ensure we have access to the best rates and discounts; even those of us who don't sell travel still need nice holidays and this is very much a priority for us.
• To keep you covered on your travels we provide free annual travel insurance, which extends to a partner and children who live with you when travelling together.
• And to keep you healthy on your travels we provide discounts of 25-60% on immunisations at our Travel Clinic in Kensington, London as well as a free annual flu jab.
• We provide a contributory pension scheme to help you plan for the future.
• Everyone has access to free laundry facilities on site and eye care vouchers.
• There is a paid lunch break and lunch is provided on site with tea, coffee, fruit and snacks to keep us energised through the day.
• * we tend to be a pretty loyal bunch and 10 year and 20 year milestones are recognised with a gift from the Chairman.
• We're also a pretty friendly bunch and there are great socialising opportunities including team nights out and subsidised summer and Christmas parties.
• All sales and client facing staff are provided with a smart uniform to mirror the professionalism of how the company is run.
• As corporate sponsors of the Royal Geographical Society we have access to complimentary tickets to their Monday Night Lectures in London as well as regional events around the UK and their lectures held in the City of London.
• Our Chairman has been recognised for his charitable contributions and extends this to matching funds for those of us who run, cycle or grow moustaches to raise money for charity.

Work for Trailfinders

Are you passionate about travel? Are you a motivated sales person dedicated to providing exceptional client care? If so please submit the application form and tell us why you have what it takes to be a Trailfinders travel expert.

If we do not have any current vacancies, or if we are not recruiting for your preferred location, please register your details and we will keep you updated by email.

Are you passionate about travel but prefer to be more behind the scenes? We occasionally recruit for administration and support roles at our travel centres in London, Oxford and Dublin. If we do not have any current vacancies you can register your details and we will keep you updated by email. Or send your CV & covering letter to be considered when we next recruit to gillian.walker@trailfinders.com

We don't ask for prior travel industry experience or a particular degree but most of our Travel Consultants are graduates and if you are an ambitious graduate then the opportunities at Trailfinders for career development are great.

Promotions in the early years are performance based giving you real influence on your progression as you work your way up to a senior consultant and then there can be additional opportunities to advance your career in specialist areas such as Premium Travel & Cruise, First & Business Travel, Corporate & Group Travel and Private Touring.

Along the way is genuine earning potential with uncapped commision based on individual sales performance.

We encourage personal development and only recruit from within for supervisory and management level positions in sales. Our team leaders, managers and directors lead from the front having typically begun their TF journey as trainee travel consultants.

For successful consultants there may also be opportunities to support the brand in a head office capacity as we also recruit internally for a number of roles in London such as Product Development, Marketing, IT and Training & Development.